Investigating relational capital and female enterprises in the international context

Purpose – In the knowledge economy, relational capital is a strategic, intangible and relevant asset of contemporary companies such as micro, small and medium enterprises. In this context, micro-enterprises are key drivers of economic growth and woman entrepreneurs are key developers of these businesses. From here, the aim of this paper is to carry out a literature review to investigate how relational capital contributes to the startup phase of women-owned micro-enterprises. Another aim is to understand whether and what extent the studies conducted so far have addressed these issues: How and why women entrepreneurs using relational capital? What are the main benefits they get using relational capital? What are the main obstacles? Design/methodology/approach – The article relies on a literature review about relational capital and women entrepreneurs in the current scenario. For this purpose, a literature searches on Scopus has been conducted, using a set of selected keywords. Scopus has been used as it allows us to be confident on the quality of publications. Selected papers have been analyzed and classified them, in an attempt to identify main topics and results obtained thanks to research and analysis carried out so far. Originality/value – This paper contributes to expand the international literature on connection between gender studies and relational capital. Our literature review emphasizes the topic analyzed as emerging issue, which gives us the possibility to identify new trends and future directions for research. Practical implications – The major implication of the paper is to advance knowledge and practice in the area of gender in management and use of relational capital by focusing upon empirical research, theoretical developments, practice and current issues. Relevant evidence of paper are related to a better understanding of the debate on “Gender and relational capital” considering that female entrepreneurship is regarded as central to the development and welfare of economies, the deepening of knowledge of how women entrepreneurs manage the relation of her business can contribute to improving the effectiveness policies aimed at promoting the participation of female entrepreneurs in the economy.